On Friday night at the Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, the Knicks (21-9) were defeated by the Sacramento Kings (10-19) by the score of 106-105. Box Score

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J.R. Smith was the Knicks lead scorer tonight with 28 points on 11-25 shooting from the field. He added seven rebounds and five assists.

Tyson Chandler scored 21 points and had 18 rebounds including six offensive rebounds.

James Johnson scored 17 points off the bench including a buzzer beating three pointer which was his first made three this season.

Marcus Thornton led the Kings in scoring with 18 points and the Kings had six players in double figures.

Chris Copeland had 23 points off the bench as the Knicks bench scored 64 points while the starters combined for only 41 points.

The Kings shot 50% from three (15-30) while the Knicks shot 37% from three (11-30)

The Knicks trailed by as many as 27 points in the 2nd quarter 68-41 and trailed 71-50 at halftime. They did lead by five points in the fourth quarter, a 32 point turn around.

The Knicks shot only 12-20 from the free throw line, which is only 60%

The Kings scored only 35 points in the second half, less than half the points they scored in the first half

The Knicks are now 9-7 on the road and in the calendar year, were only 7-13 on Friday Nights

Matthew Falkenbury

The range of emotions that I’m sure you all had was on a roller coaster that Six Flags would be jealous of watching this game tonight. Anger from the first half, hope in the third quarter, sheer jubilation for most of the fourth and then ending in heartbreak at the buzzer.

Some quick notes on the game tonight.

– The first half was a combination of poor defense and a hot shooting team. While the second half seemed to almost be like the law of averages on top of a better effort on defense gave the Knicks a chance to pull this game out. The Knicks are fighters, if you take out one positive from this game, that is it.

– The Knicks led by five late but couldn’t finish. When making a comeback like this one, it takes a lot of energy to do that and it looked like the final three minutes of this game bore that out. Bricks and the turnover by Kidd really killed the Knicks late.

– Jason Kidd had a rough end of the game. He was totally hosed on a foul call late on Isaiah Thomas and then the turnover on the alley-oop pass to Chandler before the buzzer beater. He has been so good this season, everyone has their down moments in a season, even Kidd.

– There is no quit in Tyson Chandler what so ever, but his poor free throw shooting really hurt the Knicks tonight. He was 3-9 from the Line, while the rest of the Knicks were 9 of 11.

– The Kings sure didn’t look a team that was devoid of talent and a mess. I mean, I haven’t seen them play once this season, but I’m pretty sure that tonight was the best game they have had all season.

– Chris Copeland is a bit of an issue on the defensive end, but his offense certainly isn’t a problem. If he improves on defense, it’s a guarantee that he will see some minutes, even when this team gets healthy.

– The Knicks really had no business winning this game, and I pretty much would have rather seen them get blown out than lose at the buzzer. But, again, glass half full approach, we can look at this game and say no matter what, there is always a chance they can comeback.

-Brutal loss. Worse that the Knicks have a 3,000 mile trip home and three days to sit on this loss as well. New Years Day and the potential return of Amar’e and Melo can’t come soon enough.

Coming up next, the Knicks will have three days off and then return home on New Years Day to go up against, Damon Lillard, LaMarcus Aldridge and the Portland Trail Blazers. The game will begin at 7:30 pm on Tuesday and will be shown on MSG.